Combating the Anti-Semitism of the BDS Movement

The latest attempt to boycott Israel on a North American college campus was made over hummus. The Strauss Group, Israeli co-owner (with PepsiCo) of Sabra brand hummus, supports the Golani and Givati brigades with gift packages, and was thus accused of human rights abuses against Palestinians. Princeton students were urged to demand that other brands be offered on campus in addition to the offending hummus. The attempt failed but this is only but one of the latest examples of how the global boycott, divestment, and sanctions (BDS) movement and its accompanying “apartheid” rhetoric is being disseminated, one plate of hummus at a time.

The BDS movement is de facto anti-Semitism. BDS targets Israel. Its stated goals vary but all include the “right of return” for Palestinian “refugees” and thus the end of Israel. It is cloaked to give the impression that ending specific Israeli policies such as the “occupation” will also bring an end to efforts to ostracize Israel. Their maximalist demand — the elimination of Israel as a Jewish state — is carefully hidden.

I recently completed a tour of college campuses sponsored by CAMERA (Committee for Accuracy in Middle East Reporting in America) and confronted many of these issues first-hand. I witnessed on the one hand a great deal of energy by pro-Israel students to combat this latest wave of anti-Semitism. On the other hand, despite their noble and well meaning actions, they fall short in the face of apathy among Jewish students at large and the vitriolic activities of the pro-Palestinian camps. The latter have devised ever more vigorous means to demonize Israel, such as model “check points” and apartheid walls, that disrupt campus life.

For example, while speaking at the University of Oklahoma I was challenged by two pro-Palestinian students who read off 3×5 cards a prepared question with the “correct” answer which they thought would illustrate Israel as a colonial force that wants to rid the region of Arabs and Muslims. The question was about the two blue lines that bookend the Star of David in the flag of Israel. It was phrased to anticipate an answer that the goal of Zionism is to expand from the Euphrates River to the Mediterranean Sea, eradicating all Muslim presence. Ironically, this reflects a common protest chant used by many pro-Palestinians during demonstrations: “From the river to the sea, Palestine will be free.”

But after hearing a long explanation about the origins of the flag of Israel, which comes from the colored stripes of the Jewish prayer shawl, they left the room confused yet determined to come back with more “facts.” Such information is easily found but BDS supporters use assertions, no matter how absurd, to portray Israel as an aggressive force that robbed Palestinians of their land and threatens the entire Middle East.

7 Comments, 7 Threads

1.
Ken Besig, Israel

That we now find ourselves defining the defense of Israel as a purely Jewish responsibility is an sign of how effective Israel’s enemies have become in delgitimizing the Jewish State.
The truth is that Israel has Christian defenders and supporters as well, but out of some fear of missionizing, American Jews have been reluctant to utilize this large group of enthusiastic and generous people.
The State of Israel and the Jewish values it represents is a necessary and important member of the international community and this is why our enemies are laboring so intensively to destroy us.
As a People the Jews and Israel are only recently coming to grips with the invidious attempts by our enemies to delegitimize us and to date our response has been inconsistent and usually weak.
But now that we are aware of what exactly our enemies are up to we can develop and effective plans for our defense and ultimate success against them.

1. Organized BDS is a dangerous front for anti-semitism and and we all need to properly condemn it as an attack on the legitimacy of the Jewish State. Important to understand thst some people — certainly not the organizers, are more naively swept into this and that not everyone involved is anti-semitic. These are the persuadable people whom we need to reach. If we tar each and everyone as an anti-semite, we will not reach the persuadables.

2. You (and NGO Monitor) mischaracterize and misrepresent both J Street and the New Israel Fund in regard to BDS.

J Street, working along with ZOA, Hillel and numerous groups across the political spectrum, was key in defeating the Univ of California – Berkeley BDS initiative.

Asaf, you need to decide if you are more interested in promoting your political agenda or if you really want to defeat anti-Israel BDS, which will require a coordinated effort of the entire community working on this issue together.

You know, I’ve heard this thing before from muslims about Israel wanting to expand to the Euphrates. Do these people ever read maps or think through their moronic assumptions before they open their mouths? The answer is: apparently no. How in the world several million Israelis are going to be able to blunder their way across Jordan and Iraq or why they would want to in the first place seems to be a secondary consideration. Why not just say Israel wants to encompass the entire globe; the chance is just as likely.

These are the same I.Q.’s that talk about Jewish folks evacuating themselves from the twin towers on 9/11 without regard for the logistics and secrecy that would be necessary to accomplish such a thing.

They are the same people who believe America and Israel bombed buildings using airplanes as a cover. This would involve a scenario even a science fiction writer wouldn’t touch and yet there are people ever ready to trot out the unlikeliest scenario in the history of mankind on youtube and countless forums. Why not just say a giant invisible Bigfoot pancaked the towers – it would have equal traction.

Their is no wrong or right here in regard to the former Mandate of Palestine, only a power play where people who shouldn’t play with guns lost to Palestinian Jews and can’t utter the words “I surrender”. With all their masterminding of unlikely scenarios, there is never a word from the Palestinian Arabs as to why muslim Jordan seized the West Bank for 20 years or address the fact that Palestinian Arabs cannot get along with anybody and are basically prisoners in refugee camps in Lebanon. If they’d shut the frick and frack up for a few years and knock off the eternal waqf equivalent of the Zionism they purport to detest, maybe someone might mistake them for a people who actually have brains and lack cultural bigotry. Their are websites I’ve seen here in Egypt that show the silhouette of Israeli soldiers gunning down other silhouettes of unarmed men carrying a Palestinian flag. This gives one an insight into how muslims view Palestinian Arabs as having been sitting around a campfire when waves of Israeli soldiers debouched from amtraks and kicked out Palestinian Arabs from their campfire in a Trail of Tears scenario called the Nakba. Their was no civil war or intent to do the same thing to Jews as eventually happened to the Arabs.

Apartheid? Apartheid ain’t building a wall to keep out people who want to kill you baby; get a dictionary. The sudden interest in law on the part of Palestinian Arabs actually means: “They took our guns.” If Robert E. Lee had been Yassir Arafat, there’d be a giant wall around Mississippi, Georgia and Alabama and we’d be trying to sell it to a reluctant Cuba or Mexico.

Its funny when I read how these muslims talk about Israel expanding from the Mediterriean to the Euphtates river. If you look at the Hebrew bible in Genesis God does talk about this. Its the muslims who do not want peace. The type of peace they preach is of the piece by piece type. I am a Jew and I will defend ISrael. I dare say most Muslims do not practice a religion of peace. They are possess by Satan himself and they will never be happy until all non muslims are no more. The Muslims are the ones who are some of the most intorlorent people on earth. I say screw all the muslims.

How do some of you rationalize your abhorence of anti Semitism, with your own obvious hatred for Arabs and Muslims? Why is it only Anti Semitic to criticize Jews, when Arabs are Semites too? Are some of you afraid that if people find out that some Jews are bad too, that the ovens will be preheated? No group is perfect. Israel is indeed the blind spot for many Jewish as well as Christian Americans. That does not make me a hater.